


Robotic

by Lancelotv01



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender, vld - Fandom
Genre: Eventual Smut, Hunk wants his friend to be happy, Keith is 22, Lance is 21, Lance needs love, M/M, Pidge also wants Lance to be happy, Pidge is 18, Shiro is a robot, hunk is also 21, mild slowburn, past klance, shiro is 26
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 04:35:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11120025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lancelotv01/pseuds/Lancelotv01
Summary: Lance just needs some love, so Hunk and Pidge build up their love in the form of shiro. An AI unit made to keep Lance happy.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Sir Scandalous' art on Instagram.

Lance is the very definition of needy, having someone by his side is a desperate must have. He needs the validation, the company, the compliments. He needs someone. Finding love is hard for him though, everyone just manages to find a reason to grow tired of him each time, whether it be his boisterous personality, or how clingy he is. It seems his ability to please anyone is just as bad as his ability to flirt.

Not that he's awful at it, but he has been turned down more than normal.

Lance’s last boyfriend, Keith, even left him for someone better. Not that he can blame him, Keith deserves better.

Currently Lance seats himself in his friend’s garage, sighing all too loudly far too often. Hunk, his amazing friend with such high tolerance for him, is growing tired of seeing his friend in such a slump.

“So what happened with Keith?” Hunk asks, removing his blow torch from the hot metal. Lance begins to rest his head against the palm of his hand. Just recalling the incident brings a hot churn to the boy’s stomach.

“We had this super shitty argument and he left. Said he didn’t want anything to-do with me, wish he never met me...blah blah blah. The list goes on.” Lance shrugs.

They’d had this argument once or twice, but he never thought it would ever get this bad.

“Oh, man, I’m sorry bro.” Hunk states with an apologetic look. Lance shrugs at him, he'd done his crying, and now he'a tired.

Still needy for the attention, but tired all the same.

No matter the gender people hurt him, the only one who had been remotely there for him was Pidge, Hunk, and Keith. He figured out Keith’s true feelings, and Hunk is in a dedicated relationship with Shay, and Pidge...Pidge is Aromantic, and asexual so there's no use trying.

“It’s fine, what are you working on?” Lance asks trying to derail the topic from his depressing love life.

“Oh! Pidge and I have a group project, we're working on making an A.I system.” Hunk explains as he dusts his hands off on his jeans.

“What like a human?” Lance questions watching as the metal cooled on the two pieces Hunk is welding together. He doesn't quite understand everything his genius friends are doing half the time, but Lance McClain is no idiot.

“Sorta, we're starting out small, so Pidge is programming a dog instead since their reactions are easier to code than humans. Yanno, since we're such complicated creatures with complex emotions.” Hunk explains before looking at the metal skeleton of the dog. “I'll fix it up later, you wanna go get some ice cream or something? My treat.” Hunk offers with a gentle grin, Lance sighs contently at his best friend. He could always count on Hunk.

“Yeah” he smiles hopping off his place in the workshop. Hunk closes his garage after they exit and begins heading towards his car. Hunk drives a large open door, yellow Jeep and Lance loves riding in it.

The wind twisting through his curls, and when they drive near the beach the smell the salty sea waves penetrates his nose. It allows him to feel free without feeling like he's going to die. Compared to riding on Keith's motorcycle he much preferrs this. 

Once at Lance’s favorite ice cream shop the lanky man orders his fill of sweets on top of sweets before patiently waiting for his friend. Hunk, without any complaint, paid for both their treats.

“How have you and Shay been? I haven't seen her in a while.” Lance asks, looking up at the taller male. Hunk shrugs his shoulders gently.

“She's good, been busy since classes started up again, she said she'd visit again soon. Right now she's working as a ward clerk in her small town hospital and getting funding to go back to school to become a registered nurse. Isn't that cool?” Lance almost chokes on the fondness in Hunk’s voice.

This is what Lance craves the most, for someone to look and talk about him like that. He just wanted to be acknowledged and loved by someone whole heartedly as he had loved them. They may have been for breif moments, but Lance truly did love every partner he had.

From that girl Nyma; who stole his credit card, all the way down to Keith, who broke his fragile heart.

“Must be nice.” Lance sighs elbowing his large friend gently with a satisfied smile. He really is happy for Hunk.

“Hey, you asked, oh by the way! Our viewing for our project is in four months. You should come check it out.” Hunk grins slapping his friend on the back. Lance chokes on his cream for a moment before straightening himself out.

“Wouldn't miss it for the world.” He grins.


	2. One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four months pass and Lance is still kinda salty at Keith.  
> Pidge and Hunk's project is finished.  
> Shay comes to support.  
> Keith just wants to apologize.

By the time Hunk and Pidge’s experiment is to be presented Lance allows himself to come to terms with his and Keith’s break up. While it was crushing, Lance knows he can't do anything about it. So seeing Keith at the project fair with his new man totally isn't affecting Lance in the slightest. Even if he has the urge to cry when Keith smiles and laughs at his jokes, or when Keith leans into his gentle touches. He certainly isn't mad, he definitely isn't upset that Keith treats him so much differently than when he was with Lance. Nope, no salt here, Lance is _not_ mad.

“Lance stop glaring, you look murderous.” Hunk states as he fixes the faux fur on the robotic dog. Lance turns his eyes down to his shoelaces as he scratches his head.

“I ain’t glaring, just admiring how much happier Keith is without me.” He huffs crossing his arms, Hunk looks up at his friend, eyebrow arched in disbelief. “Why does he even need to be here? He isn't even the same class as you guys.” Lance complains.

“His new boyfriend Lucas takes it,” Hunk explains, “he made an A.I system too, but his is human, just the bust though.” He continues also looking up at the couple. Hunk is more focused on the competition ahead, Lucas is intelligent that's for sure. Not just anybody got into their class, hell even Lance couldn't get in and he is one hell of a smarty pants. 

“But ours is gonna win, cause we made a _whole system_ that not only works like a real dog, but looks like one.” Pidge smirks, thin lips curling at the end in a devious way.

Lance has to say, he's in awe by his friend’s abilities.

The dog is called Project Rover, he can bark, sniff, and do other basic dog things other than poop or eat. Lance is struck by how real everything looks and feels. It's like petting a real dog, if not for the mechanic squeaking every now and then.

Lance turns his attention to Keith and Lucas, Keith is mainly there for emotional support while Lucas works away. His A.I bust is spectacular, but the robot lacks proper human appeals. It looks more like a movable wax figure than a human, and the expressions aren't great either.

Surprised looks far too comical, sad is a blubbering mess of water, anger looks exactly like Keith. There is no real human component about it, it's too dramatic. However, people are able to hold conversations with the robot. It gives very intellectual answers, some might even say too intellectual.  

“We got this.” Hunk chuckles giving his shorter friend, Pidge, a high five.

Pidge is an absolute genius for their age, even the teacher is quite impressed with their work for such a young kid. To be eighteen and attending such a prestigious school such as Garrison on a full ride is almost unheard of. Pidge is a special case, they managed to graduate a year early from their high school, took a year break, and was still accepted into the Garrison.

It must be nice to be smart. Lance did indeed have a scholarship for the Garrison, however it only managed to pay for half of his tuition, and the other half is student loans sadly.

Lance watches as Pidge continues to work away at the robot, rubbing weeks worth of sleep deprivation from their eyes. Part of why Pidge is so smart is because of how dedicated they are, and that is another thing Lance admires about them.

Pidge and Hunk are both just so...great. He's jealous, but not jealous enough to interfere with his overwhelming love for the two.

“I’m back, I got a black coffee with two sugars for Pidge, a latte for Hunk, and a caramel frap with extra caramel for Lance!” Shay grins as she hands out the drinks. Shay is a large woman, with tan skin and short dark hair that hugs her face. Her roundish face is further sculpted by thick cheeks and plump lips, with wide hazel eyes. 

She takes classes at Balmera University, a medical school two towns away. Shay always manages to make time for her lovely boyfriend and his friends though, it's so great to see them so in love. Shay had specifically taken time off to support Hunk on this momentous day, Hunk really needs the support to calm his anxiety. 

“Thanks Shay, I like you a-latte.” Hunk blushes and Shay gives a snort like laugh as she slaps him on the back. The sound the slap implies its strong impact but Hunk is a large specimen that can handle it.

Shay is about the same height, if not a little taller than Hunk, with large muscles that are expertly showed off with her tank tops. Lance isn't the least bit surprised to find out she had previously played girl’s football for her high school.

“Hunk you’re so funny, so what time is the judging?” She asks taking a sip of her own drink as Lance slurped away at his.

“Around four-ish, they should get to us by four thirty since we’re a bit closer to the judging table. I put so much time into the coding, we better get a good ass grade, and win this thing cause I’m running off three hours of sleep for this _whole week_.” Pidge replies before pouring some of their Monster into the cup of coffee.

Lance has seen them do this so often it doesn't disturb him anymore, but he is still certain that is  _not_ healthy for them.

Caffeine stunts growth, which would explain why Pidge still looks like middle schooler.

“I hope you guys win too! Rover is super impressive!” Shay giggles as she kneels down to the dog who greets her with happy licks and pounces all over her.

“If we don’t at least come in second I’ll be pretty upset too.” Hunk admits with a bashful grin. “Making the fur was hard though, so much yarn.” Hunk states looking at his hands with a horror stricken gaze.

“You did good though, the skeleton is able to withstand everything you guys put on, and function, it just looks so..cool.” Shay admits watching as the large robotic dog walks around the group sitting next to one member, before bothering the next.

“Okay, quick question though, why a dog?” Lance asks, tilting his head a bit. “Why not like...a cat or something?” he continues, personally he believed programming a cat would have been easier than a dog. Cats aren't as hyperactive as dogs, plus they're smaller so it would have been easier to build. 

“Well, you know how I like dogs, but my dad’s like deathly allergic?” Pidge states kneeling down to the animal. “I wanted to make one that the family could enjoy, also dogs are cool.” Pidge states ruffling the dog’s faux fur.

“Oh yeah, I almost totally forgot your dad is allergic, I remember one time I was walking Subi and saw you guys and your dad crossed the road.” Hunk laughs. Though if you're as Allergic as Mr. Holt, and had seen Hunk’s Alaskan Husky, Musubi, you would run too.

“Yup, so I wanted to make a dog I could enjoy since we have like three cats.” Pidge states. Lance can understand, he can't imagine being allergic to animals, he loves them too much to even _think_ of something so terrible.

“Hey guys, just wanted to come and wish you luck on today’s project.” A fifth voice enters their conversation and Lance has to physically look away from Lucas as Keith approaches with him.

“Thanks Lucas, good luck to you too.” Hunk grins, Lance stays silent, but looks up enough to watch as keith’s eyes meet his for a millisecond before turning away.

That _mullet_ , he’s probably internally making fun of Lance for being so pathetic.

“I’m gonna go explore the other projects.” Lance excuses himself abruptly before walking away from the scene.

The rest of the group watches with sorrowful gazes as Lance walks away, Keith especially.

“What was that about?” Lucas asks, rubbing the back of his head.

“Exboyfriend.” Keith replies and the man opens his mouth in a silent ‘oh’. “Sorry guys, I really messed up with Lance.” Keith sighs Pidge focuses on their robotic animal.

“Not us you should be apologizing to, Lance walked that way.” Pidge states pointing a wrench in the direction the latino boy walked.

“I tried though! He blocked my number like a day after.” Keith replies.

“I don’t know, if you really wanted to, you think you woulda done it by now.” Pidge mutters, ripping Keith a new one. “Though I do hear what you’re saying, Lance can be sorta petty, I think it’s just what you said that really hurt him. Never seen him _this_ angry at an ex. He’s usually really good at keeping in touch, this is just as bad as Nyma.” Pidge snorts and Hunk crosses his arms.

“I knew I didn’t like them for a reason; Rolo steals my tires off my Jeep, Nyma steals his credit card, they’re gross.” he huffs and Shay can only giggle at his adorable reactions.

“I’ll find time to talk to him, I think he just needs a bit more time. Maybe after he finds someone, he’s usually a bit more carefree after someone takes an interest in him.” Keith shrugs and the rest can do nothing but agree. Lance is a bit easier to talk with when he's dating, but also just as difficult.

Lance dedicates all the attention he could give to the person he's with. Adoring voicemails, cute texts, he just wants to let that person know how much he loves them.

“Alright, just make sure it gets done.” Hunk states, it’s softer than a threat, but still intense for such a soft boy.

“Contestants to their booths, judging begins in five minutes.” The intercom voice states.

“That looks like my cue to scram, good luck again guys.” Lucas states before walking away with Keith.

“I’ll see you after the judging.” Shay grins giving Hunk a kiss on the cheek before removing herself from behind the booth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates should happen monthly.  
> Kudos and comments more likely to influence me to update sooner though.  
> If you'd like to contact me privately please email me or DM me on instagram.  
> LancelotV01@gmail.com  
> or  
> @ya_boi_skinny_Lance.


	3. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sendak wants to buy Rover and the coding, Lance explains his feelings. Hunk and Pidge are tired of babysitting.

Hunk and Pidge sit anxiously for the judging to be over, not only because they are now hyper aware of the mistakes made when they presented Rover, but also Lance hadn't come back from his journey three hours ago. Lance was an impulsive mess at times so his friends worry about him constantly.

“Relax hunk, I'm sure he's okay.” Shay states as she rubs his back comfortingly, he manages a shaky breath.

“I sure hope so Shay.” He replies she turns her eyes down to her feet for a moment before looking back up.

“I'll go look for him for now, I'll call you guys if I find him.” She states throwing on her jacket to avoid the harsh winter breeze. Hunk instantly looks twice as worried.

“Are-are you sure you're going to be okay out there by yourself? Maybe you should wait and we can all go together.” He wrings his hands nervously at the very thought of Shay out there by herself, it could be dangerous. Being in the center of town, while the sun was setting was either extremely adventurous or hazardous. 

“Hunk I'll be fine, I'll call you soon.” She smiles to reassure him before gently kissing his forehead and walking towards the convention center’s exit. Hunk and Pidge sit there for a while longer just thinking of all the trouble Lance could have ended himself up in. At least Shay was kind enough to help babysit their friend.

“My my, what a splendid system, you two are quite a magnificent team.” A man states as he kneels down next to Rover who sniffs at his hand before licking it.

“Uh, thanks.” Pidge replies awkwardly, the man is taller than the two and well dressed for a convention. Though many companies did scout at these types of gatherings.

“We are hoping to create a line of AI systems to produce around the world,” the man studies the robot before turning to them, “I would hopefully like to have you for our company, how old are you?” Hunk arches an eyebrow at him, though his intentions seemed good nothing about his aura was.

“Pidge is eighteen and I'm twenty one.” Hunk replies.

“Amazing, so young. Far too young for me to hire, would you be willing to sell the coding to me?” The man asks with a mischievous smile that reaches his eyes.

“Sorry, not for sale, work of Pidge and I plan to keep it that way.” They snap back quickly at the very mention of selling their hard work. 

“If it's money young man, I promise you there is no monetary value too high for me.” 

“Oh how funny I was just thinking there is no monetary value high enough for me to sell!” The man’s eye twitches vaguely and hunk shrinks behind Pidge who has no problem squaring up to someone three times their size. 

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity-”

“Which I would like to decline.” They deadpan clearly tired with the current conversation. The man lets an exhausted breath release through his nose.

“I see, if you happen to change your mind, here's my call card.” The man states reaching into his breast pocket for the card before sliding it over the table. Pidge eyes him as he walks away before picking up shimmering card. It was basic, a small thing with a large purple letter G in front of a solid black background. On the back read the name Sendak and various phone numbers to contact him along with an email.

“This is ridiculous I don't wanna sell to some company so they can use _my_ programming with their stupid name on it.” Pidge grumbles before tossing the card.

“Makes sense, hey I think they're announcing winners now, should we go?” Hunk asks as he removes himself from behind the booth, Pidge nods before following suit as Rover trails behind them.

The award ceremony is over in an hour, Hunk and Pidge come in first place. By then they are able to get back to the booth in time to witness twelve missed calls from Shay. Hunk instantly dials back.

 _“Hey, bout time someone answers.”_ She giggles and Hunk mentally slaps himself for leaving his phone.

“Hey Shay! We won!” Pidge screams in the back giggling profusely.

 _“Cool! So I uh managed to find Lance though...he's super drunk.”_ She replies and Hunk wipes his face with his hand.

“How drunk?”

 _“Drunk enough that he ran into a telephone pole and apologized then proceeded to flirt with it then left when he didn't get a response.”_  

“So pretty fucking drunk, okay. Where are you guys at? Well head over now” hunk states as he quickly begins to pack his things. 

 _“At a bar called Arus? I've never heard of it till now. Friendly place.”_ Shay states and Hunk chuckles softly.  

“Got it, I know exactly where that is, be there in a jiffy.” He states as he zips up his bag and hangs up the phone.

“She find him?” Hunk slings his bag over his shoulder

“Yup!”

“Is he drunk?” Pidge follows shoving their laptop into its case and slinging the bag over one shoulder.

“Very.” Pidge rolls their eyes at his response.

“Of course, let's go get the idiot.” They grumble as they march out of the area with Rover following close behind.

**

Shay laughs as Lance latches himself onto Hunk, he drunkenly slurs the words to hips don't lie. He gyrates his hips along to his monotone beat, at least his dancing is better than his singing. 

“Awe man, you guys are so good to me. You guys seriously love me, unlike that asshole Keith, hope you're happy Keith!” He yells into the empty parking lot. “Fuck Keith guys, like not even the-the good fuck, the bad fuck.”

“Okay Lance, calm down a little.” Hunk groans  trying to tuck him into his Jeep, Lance sits between Shay and Pidge since the Jeep is open doors this seating arrangement is best.

“Man you guys, I don't think anyone could love me like you guys do.” Lance mumbles as he rests against Shay’s shoulder. “Nobody shows me love like you guys, it makes me sad but y'all know how to cheer a guy up.” Hunk can't help but grip at the steering wheel a little tighter. “Like everyone I know just ends up hurting me and I feel so worthless but you guys help me out so much.” Shay frowns at his words next.

“Yeah, Lance, we love you a lot.” It's Pidge who speaks up and the words surge through Lance like a firecracker, his face bright and shimmery from those few words. It almost physically pains Hunk to see how such few words can influence his friend, to know how he really felt about himself.

“I knew it, you guys wouldn’t hurt me, well Pidge might.” Lance chuckles and Pidge can only shake their head, if it was physical pain then that could be guaranteed from the shorter person (when he deserved it), however, they would not intentionally try and damage Lance mentally.

“Go to sleep Lance.” Pidge states and the man has no problem with cuddling up to the smaller teen. Pidge isn’t one for being so intimate, but they could sense that Lance really needs this, and let him tuck his head under their arm. Even if the position is quite awkward for both of them Pidge lets him get situated and comfortable.

** 

Since that night to say Lance is clingy is an understatement, he's almost everywhere. When Hunk and Shay manage to go on a date, he would third wheel without hesitation. Hunk is getting rather irate by his actions, but isn't sure how to go about getting rid of him without hurting his feelings. Lance had already told them, drunkenly, how he felt around everyone else.

  
As if Hunk’s position is bad, Pidge's slightly worse. Being the silent introverted type, having someone constantly around wears pidge out to every extreme. It just seems like they couldn’t replenish any energy with such a hyperactive person around. Lance is there to help with coding if they needed it, or just distract them when they _should_ be coding. Then it was always difficult to get him to leave, he would insist on buying dinner, or bring games, anything to stay. While Pidge did admire his attention they just couldn’t handle so much.

“Hunk, we seriously have to-do something about this.” Pidge groans into the phone after a long gaming session with the Latino. He had thoroughly distracted Pidge from their work with a video game they’d been wanting to play, and is now behind on their work.  

 _“I hear you, but you heard him that one night, he needs us Pidge.”_ Hunk sighs into the receiver.

“We need to find him a friend, someone, a pet even maybe, just something not us to keep him busy.” Pidge states as Rover crawls onto their lap.

 _“Why don’t we let Rover stay with him?”_ They choke on their coffee, monster mix.

“My Rover?! Hell no, he’s too precious, plus Lance wouldn’t know how to take care of him.” They grumble scratching the robotic dog’s ears.

 _“Okay, what do you suggest then?”_ Pidge sits there and thinks about it for a moment longer.

“You’re on track with building something to keep him busy, but I don’t think a robotic dog will suit his needs, I think we should work on an AI system, but a human suitable for Lance.” Pidge replies.

 _“hmm...I don’t know..It’s going to require a lot of material and coding.”_  

“Think about it Hunk, he’d totally leave us alone afterwards, and we can expand out coding and mechanical expertise while we're at it.” Pidge grins and Hunk sighs.

 _“I guess, let's talk about this more in the morning._ ” Hunk sounds dead tired and Pidge hums into the device. _“Good night Pidge, or well...good morning, since it’s three am._ ” Hunk yawns.  

“Good morning to you too.” they chuckle before hanging up. 

**

Sendak swiveles in his chair as he thinks back to the ignorant children who have yet to call him about selling their products. They'be kept him waiting well over a month and he's growing impatient. Galra Tech. Inc. is the top selling in all tech products, so why they haven’t come crawling to him he doesn’t know.

Zarkon is a mass producing genius, and has come up with a subtle way to get a Galra related item into the lives of people regardless of their necessity. The idea of wanting to create AI systems was silly at first, but Sendak soon began to understand why they would be in high demand. People, especially lonely hermits, would die for a companion they wouldn’t have to feed, or really house. They would be completely for servitude to the human race and could vary from the simplest of tasks to construction.

They need that Kid’s coding, and if they weren’t going to sell it to him, he would have to take matters into his own hands. Sendak presses a button on his intercom. 

“Sarah, call Haxus, set up a date for me to meet with him sometime this week.” he states with a wicked grin.


	4. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not previewed, please overlook minor mistakes

Hunk groans as Pidge lays out the plan for Lance’s “buddy”. It's a long shot, a really huge shot, a shot across the atlantic ocean kind long.

“I just don’t see this working.” Hunk admits causing Pidge to groan next.

“C’mon! With your engineering and my programming there’s nothing we can’t do!” Pidge squeals.

“You just want to try and get rid of Lance.” Hunk huffs in retaliation. Pidge shrugs thin shoulders as they slide the plans closer to Hunk.

“It's not that I don't love the guy he's just been seriously draining me,” Pidge sighs giving puppy dog eyes, “plus I know he's been third wheeling your dates with Shay when she's in town and we could build a mega cool AI system!” Pidge squeals. Hunk takes a moment to mull over the idea before responding

“So even if we do this-”

“Yes!” Pidge hisses in the coffee shop loud enough to draw attention in their direction.

“ _If_ we do this, how would they even look? How would we program them?” Hunk asks with a raised eyebrow of curiosity.

“I don’t know, Lance likes pretty people, so we give him a pretty person?” Pidge shrugs in response.

“Pidge you and I both know our preference for beauty differs from Lance’s” Hunk argues, and he's not wrong at all. “Plus, Lance isn't all just about looks, personality factors in too.” Hunk grumbles resting his chin against his hand to focus more on the situation.

“Lance likes anything with a pulse that can remember his birthday.” Pidge argues, the statement also correct. Both were making striking points.

“Okay, but we're forgetting something: gender will be difficult to decide since Lance is Bi with no particular preference-”

“Who said it has to have a gender?” Pidge hisses at him, they don't mean to come off hostile, but they're getting rather tired of being overlooked by everyone including the LGBT community.

“Okay, so it doesn't have a gender, we would still need to program a compatible personality for Lance, and figure out what looks to give to suit Lance’s wants. If we're going to do something like this for Lance we need to have facts straightened out so it doesn't flop in our faces and make him clingier.” Hunk huffs into a single rambled breath. Pidge taps their cheek in their own little attempt to focus.

“If I can get his preferences will you help me?” They ask with shimmery eyes. Hunk takes a brief moment to think about the consequences before giving in when he came up with a very small list. Eventually he nods in silent agreement causing Pidge’s lips to curl into a smooth smirk. “Excellent”.

 

* * *

 

Hunk never thought he’d ever be sitting in Pidge’s basement going through each profile of Lance’s ex’s.

“Lance dated her...him too...him as well.” the list was growing at an alarming rate. Finally they get to the most recent of the list. His poly relationship with Rolo and Nyma, and then Keith being the last and most recent. "What is the point to all this?"

“Just trust me.” Pidge states before typing away at their keys. Eventually the laptop stops and fills out a report in computer language Hunk can’t fully understand. “Okay, so the facial recognition noticed similarities in his longer relationships. Most of them with pretty good personalities and faces. Sharp jawlines, big muscles..even the girls are pretty well built...oooh who is she.”

“Pidge, focus.” Hunk groans, he was not about to play matchmaker with Lance’s ex.

“Right, okay, so most of his longer relationships have been with men, with age gaps of 5 years at most. Short hair, of asian descent, which is difficult considering most asian families are totally not into this gay stuff.” Pidge states, though Hunk did have to agree. His grandmother from the Hawaiian islands is very...particular about the LGBTQ community. Hunk decides to only talk to his grandmother when absolutely necessary. “Fair, skin, sharp structures, I think I understand his type, but personality is a little hard to decipher based off his ex’s profiles and faces.” Pidge admits. They knew damn well that everyone lies on their online profiles, whether it be a small lie or a big one it was still a lie.

“Okay, so what do you want me to-do?” Hunk genuinely asks.

“Go figure out the personality types he likes! Ask him some stupid questions, bring him one of those teen magazine tests he likes so much. Something detailed so I know how to program this unit.” Pidge shrugs. Hunk simply nods in agreement.

**

Now normally Hunk is all about taking these stupid best friend quizzes inside the fashion magazines Lance reads. To get Lance to casually take a personally test for his dream person is a little bit different. Not that it's hard, Lance would probably overlook it, Hunk is just really back at acting casual in times he should.

“Hey so..uh..Lance I need you..I mean should...you totally should take this test.” Hunk stutters trying to find the right sentence so Lance doesn’t feel forced to take it. Even though if he didn’t want to take it Hunk would just find another way to get the information.

“Uh..sure…” Lance replies with a questioning gaze as he takes the magazine from Hunk’s hands. “List your top five personality traits,” Lance reads aloud, he also answers aloud. “Well I’m suuuper sweet, and nice, and understanding...is kinda gay a personality? Well I'm putting it down,” Hunk wants to laugh and groan at the same time, “aaaand im loveable.” Lance finishes before moving to the next question. “What top five personalities do you want your dream spouse to have?” Lance taps the pen against his lip, a sign of serious thinking from the boy. “Well if I could describe their personality they would be bold, patient, kind, but humble, and...overall they'd just… love me.” Lance looks instantly deflated which is where mama Hunk has to come into play. Wrapping arms around Lance he simply let the thinner man find comfort in his hug and get situated. “I don't know if that last one is a personality trait.” Lance laughs over the tears that are threatening to spill over.

“It isn't, but I get how important that is to you. You'll find someone perfect for you, for now you have us, buddy.” Hunk grins as he tries to comfort his best friend. Lance let's out a weak laugh before squeezing back tightly and burying his face in Hunks chest.


	5. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How project 01got his name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not previewed yet, please ignore minor mistakes.

Now Lance is no genius, that'a for sure, but he'a no idiot either. Lance knows suspicious behaviour when he sees it, he'd seen it far too often from others. So when Hunk had asked him to take a test on one of his favorite magazines he knew something was up because Hunk is totally down for taking the quizzes with him, but he would never go as far as to ask Lance to take a specific one (it was usually Lance who decided the quizzes anyway). After said quiz Lance noticed Hunk not only kept the results, but gradually hung out with him less and less. It wouldn’t have affected Lance as strongly if every call or text didn’t end with: “Sorry, with Pidge.”.

Lance doesn't want to think about it, but had he finally driven even his friends to find him too clingy? Lance didn't think about it too much when Pidge rejected his offers to hang out because Pidge's an introverted mess, but Hunk: sweet, loveable, precious Hunk, has been declining his offers to hang out more frequently. Lance’s general reaction is to call up anyone else, take his mind off anything, get his constantly loud and obnoxious thoughts to quiet down by blowing them off with something noisy (which is why he hung out in Hunk’s engineering shop so often). That'a proving to be difficult when the only three people who does that best aren't talking to him.

He willingly chose to block Keith when the man proved to be destructive to his mental health by spouting nonsense insults that would damage him for days before he was able to recover.

Hunk is currently always busy.

Pidge stopped responding to his texts and calls awhile ago.

Lance wants to see them, wants to talk, wants to stop thinking of the possibility that they hate him. However, as he lets himself sit and think the thoughts simply get worse.

**

  
Hunk nervously sets down his phone after texting Lance, this has been the seventh week in a row he had to oppose to their usual bromance date in favor of finishing Project 01. The sooner they finish the sooner everything would return to normal for their friendship, and Keith may even finally get a chance to talk to Lance and revive their dead friendship. Though that didn’t stop Hunk from feeling bad about avoiding Lance. Bad couldn’t even begin to describe how absolutely _shitty_ he feels for doing this to him.

With the head and torso finished of Project 01, Hunk feels a swell of pride, like a father seeing their newborn kid. Everything from the false grey eyes with working tear ducts, and realistic lashes, to the beautiful porcelain skin that rest over strong features and every strand of short black hair he had put together gave him overwhelming pride. He's beautiful. Hunk begins to put in the pain receptors for the lower half when his phone rings. Shay'a trying to facetime him. Without hesitation he answers the call to his beautiful dark goddess.

“Shay, what’s up my beautiful desert Jasper?” he smiles dearly at the device as if she's actually here.

“ _Did you just compare me to a rock?_ ” she asks causing a warm blush to work it’s way up his cheeks.

“Yes?” he asks more than answers. He doesn’t know if the pet name is something she finds endearing or not.

“ _That’s so cute, anyway, what are you up to? I just finished with some classes not too long ago_.” Shay explains

“Not much, I’m working on this AI companion for Lance so he can leave us on our dates when you’re in town.” Hunk chuckles causing her to sigh.

“ _Oh thank god, I didn’t want to say anything cause he’s your best friend, but it felt so weird being so couply around him._ ” she explains causing Hunk to grunt in agreement. “ _Can I see what it looks like?_ ” she asks.

“Yeah sure let me just,” hunk takes a moment to switch the camera to his work bench where the android lay at rest for now. “The skin was the most difficult thing to synthesize, but I was able to create something that doesn’t look too waxy and fake with help from Lucas, he’s really smart.” Shay stares wide eyed at the bust.

“ _Wow, that’s..really trippy, the face almost looks exactly like my mentor, the hair is a little longer._ ” Shay squints.

“Who's your mentor?” Hunk asks.

 _“His name is Shirogane Takashi, he's a doctor slash former nurse practitioner_ ,” She replies her screen goes hazy as she exits the facetime feature but can still hear her typing away. “ _I just sent you his bio on the company website, it's really long, he's got certificates and degrees in like everything_.” Hunk exits next and hits the link. An image appears over a blue background with the balmera hospital logo repeating in the background (it was just a big crystal), Hunk had certainly never been so phased by a person's appearance before. Sure he took notice of people's general features but personality is what he focuses on, but _wow_ the head image of Dr.Shrigoane is stunning.

He has a small pull to his lips to give off a small grin against his slightly tan skin, with dark hair and oddly dyed fringe, that equally as odd, worked for him. His most prominent feature was the pink scar across the bridge of his nose, Hunk almost asks where he received it before noticing his military awards (Hunk is  smart enough to place the puzzle in place).

“Oh my god Shay if I wasn't dating you I'd be so gay.” Hunk blurts out with a laugh causing her to giggle as well.

“ _Oh my god I am not loosing my boyfriend to Dr. Shirogane, nope, no way._ ” Hunk can hear the smile in her voice.

“But wow, his hair cut looks really nice, can I like...use that for Project 01?” He asks returning to the facetime feature which lights up with his girlfriends smiling face.

“ _I don't see why not? It's just a hair cut, I would leave the fringe black though, too many similarities might be a bit weird, plus I always hated that stupid dyed fringe of his. It makes no sense!_ ” Shay stresses causing Hunk to chuckle.

“Dark fringe to please the girlfriend and the Lance. Roger!”

“ _Thank you,_ ” She grins before faltering slightly, “ _but are you going to address your AI as Project 01 all the time? Don't you think you should name it?”_ Hunk shrugs his shoulders.

“I haven't thought of anything, any ideas?” He asks setting his phone down so he can return to work. Shay squints as she focuses on the benched AI system.

“ _How about Kuro? Like opposite of Shirogane? I mean it is like the man’s weird...clone._ ” She shrugs which causes her camera to move.

“Yeah that's actually really catchy,” Hunk turns to her again with a grin before turning back to Kuro, “I feel like this is our child and we just named a baby.” Shay laughs at him.

“ _We'll cross that bridge when we get there_.” She blushes causing Hunk to blush as well.

“Project Kuro.” He mutters before going back to work on the bottom half of his pain receptors.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.  
> Kudos and comments are very much appreciated.


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